“Rapping is my outlet, it is how I express myself,” Said Will Rader,17-year-old, self-taught freestyle rapper from Hartland, Wisconsin. 

Will says his passion started a little over four years ago when he got his heart broken, he says he had no one to talk about it, so he rapped. Rapping easily placated him. He created two songs from those emotions all in one take. After listening to the song I can personally say Will has raw, natural talent. Will’s style is often compared to Rio Da Yung OG, an up and coming Detroit rapper, which makes sense considering Will’s second cousin attends Michigan State where the Detroit rap scene is very popular.

Will says his first step in creating a freestyle rap song is thinking about a single word, “it can be any word, literally anything. I often have a friend think of the word so I have to force myself to be more creative”. Will’s next step in the process is to bridge a phrase together using another word that rhymes with the previous word, one tip he gave while talking about this step is not to try too hard “the more you think, the harder it is to rap. Relax and let the words come to you.”.

Lastly, he claims that rapping is not for everyone, “these steps will only help if you are born to be a rapper, like me”. While interviewing Will I came to the conclusion that he was born with an artistic mind meant for rapping.